Atlantic Alumina Secures $450 Million Government-Private Partnership to Revive America's Last Alumina Refinery

In a decisive move to address glaring vulnerabilities in America's industrial base, Atlantic Alumina Company has announced a $450 million strategic partnership with the U.S. Department of War and Pinnacle Asset Management, marking one of the most significant government interventions in critical mineral production since World War II. The deal, announced January 12, 2026, will sustain operations at America's sole remaining alumina refinery while establishing the nation's first large-scale primary gallium production facility in Gramercy, Louisiana.

The partnership underscores a stark reality: the United States has become dangerously dependent on foreign sources—particularly China—for materials essential to national defense, aerospace systems, and advanced semiconductor manufacturing. With China accounting for 99% of worldwide primary low-purity gallium production in 2024 and controlling 61% of global alumina output, the strategic imperative for domestic production has never been more urgent.

Atlantic Alumina's Gramercy facility represents both America's greatest vulnerability and its most immediate opportunity in critical minerals. Commissioned in 1959, the refinery is the only producer of alumina in the United States, making it a single point of failure for an entire industrial ecosystem.

The facility's strategic importance extends far beyond aluminum production. Since 1959, alumina produced by ATALCO has been used as the essential raw material for aluminum metal required for American aerospace, defense, and automotive supply chains, while chemical grade alumina has supplied important industries including catalysts for oil and gas refineries, refractories, fire suppressants, ceramic casing for semiconductors, and municipal water treatment.

The refinery became America's last alumina producer after a second domestic facility shuttered in 2020, leaving the nation entirely reliant on this single Louisiana operation. The facility employs a 500-strong, uniquely skilled, majority-United Steelworkers workforce and maintains vertical integration through bauxite mining operations in Jamaica, with capacity to mine and export up to 5.2 million metric tons of bauxite per annum to the United States.

The deal structure reflects a new paradigm in government-industry collaboration, blending federal strategic investment with private sector operational expertise and capital.

The Department of War committed $150 million in preferred equity through its Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program, while Pinnacle's fund invested more than $300 million in private capital through its majority ownership of Concord Resources Holdings Limited. Additional U.S. Government funding is expected to close within 30 days, though specific amounts remain undisclosed.

The investment aims to restore ATALCO to produce over one million metric tons of alumina per year and up to 50 metric tons of gallium per year, establishing production capacity sufficient to meet the total gallium demand signal of the U.S. including the DOW and domestic innovators.

Perhaps the most strategically significant element of the partnership is the planned gallium production circuit—America's first at commercial scale. The timing could not be more critical.

The U.S. is 100% import dependent for gallium, with imports coming from China, the UK, Germany, and war-torn Ukraine. This complete dependency creates acute vulnerabilities across multiple strategic sectors. Gallium is a strategic material used in semiconductors, LEDs, and advanced radar systems, with gallium-based semiconductors vital to the U.S. defense industry, particularly in next-generation missile defense and radar systems.

The mineral's importance to national security cannot be overstated. Research indicates that gallium alone is crucial for 3,800 military uses, with 78% of U.S. military weapon systems vulnerable to China's critical mineral dominance.

China has already begun weaponizing this dependency. China's export restrictions on germanium and gallium have immediate and far-reaching implications for the United States, exposing critical economic vulnerabilities, with restrictions affecting the supply chain and raising concerns about potential shortages of advanced chips and military optical hardware. The economic stakes are substantial: researchers estimate a $3.4 billion decrease in U.S. GDP if China implements a total ban on gallium and germanium exports.

Most concerning, China's most recent round of export controls on gallium extraction technologies could impede U.S. and allied efforts to quickly develop economically competitive alternative supply sources, creating long-term strategic vulnerabilities that extend beyond immediate supply disruptions.

The Atlantic Alumina deal must be understood within the context of China's overwhelming dominance in critical mineral production—a position built systematically over decades through strategic investment, vertical integration, and aggressive industrial policy.

China leads global alumina production with 86.33 million metric tons in 2024, representing approximately 61% of worldwide output. Global alumina production reached an estimated 142 million metric tons in 2024, meaning China alone produces more than the rest of the world combined. Australia ranks a distant second at 20.58 million metric tons, followed by Brazil at 8.89 million metric tons.

The United States, by contrast, produces less than 1% of global alumina—approximately one million metric tons annually from the single Gramercy facility. This concentration creates what defense analysts describe as an unacceptable strategic vulnerability, particularly given alumina's role as a critical step in the aluminum supply chain, impacting the efficiency and sustainability of aluminum manufacturing.

China's position in gallium is even more dominant. As of 2022, China produced a staggering 98 percent of the world's supply of raw gallium, a figure that has only increased, with China accounting for 99% of worldwide primary low-purity gallium production in 2024. This near monopoly on global gallium production mirrors China's dominance across the critical materials spectrum.

The private sector anchor of this partnership, Pinnacle Asset Management, brings both capital and strategic vision aligned with long-term U.S. supply chain security.

Founded in 2003, Pinnacle is a New York-based alternative asset management firm focused on the global commodities markets with approximately $6 billion under management. The firm operates as a commodity trading adviser and commodity pool operator registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, providing institutional investors with exposure through physical and financial absolute return strategies and products.

What distinguishes Pinnacle from typical financial investors is its decade-long commitment to physical commodity assets with strategic value. Jason Kellman, Chief Investment Officer, stated that "For the past decade, our investment philosophy has centered on bolstering the U.S. supply chain for critical minerals and other commodities". Scott Kellman, Managing Partner, emphasized the firm's focus on mineral processing and power generation capabilities that contribute to America's materials supply chain security.

Pinnacle's portfolio demonstrates this strategic focus. The firm acquired the world's largest cattle-feeding operation, Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, from JBS USA for approximately $200 million, and has backed multiple Viserion entities focused on agricultural commodities, including Viserion Grain and Viserion Oilseed Processing.

Through Concord Resources Holdings Limited, founded in 2015, Pinnacle has built a global natural resource company that wholly owns Atlantic Alumina and Concord Resources Limited, a global commodity merchant with a focus on non-ferrous metals and associated minerals. Atlantic Alumina was acquired by Concord Resources in July 2021, positioning Pinnacle as the majority shareholder well before the current government partnership.

The federal investment comes through the Department of War's Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program, which has been elevated to address critical mineral vulnerabilities as a national security priority.

Under Executive Order 14241, issued March 20, 2025, mineral production was added as a priority industrial capability development area for the Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program, placing critical minerals on par with defense manufacturing capabilities. The order reflected an urgent assessment: National and economic security are now acutely threatened by reliance upon hostile foreign powers' mineral production, making it imperative to take immediate action to facilitate domestic mineral production.

The program leverages multiple funding mechanisms, including Defense Production Act Title III authorities and the DOD Office of Strategic Capital. The Secretary of Defense may use authority under section 303 of the DPA for domestic production and facilitation of strategic resources necessary to advance domestic mineral production. The administration has worked to establish a dedicated mineral and mineral production fund for domestic investments coordinated with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.

The Atlantic Alumina investment represents the program's largest single award to date at $150 million in preferred equity. The executive order sends a strong signal that the Trump administration is prioritizing minerals security and willing to support the private sector by lowering barriers to entry and mobilizing existing funding expeditiously.

While the partnership provides critical financial support, significant operational challenges remain. The investment aims to bring the facility back to nameplate production, suggesting it has been operating below full capacity—a common challenge for aging industrial facilities competing against heavily subsidized Chinese production.

The gallium production circuit represents entirely new infrastructure. Building America's first large-scale primary gallium extraction facility will require significant capital expenditure, technical expertise, and time. The facility must be designed, permitted, constructed, and commissioned—a process that typically spans 24-36 months for complex mineral processing operations.

The partnership benefits from ATALCO's existing workforce expertise and infrastructure. The 500-strong, uniquely skilled, majority-United Steelworkers workforce provides operational continuity and specialized knowledge that would be difficult to replicate. The facility's vertical integration through Jamaican bauxite operations provides feedstock security that new entrants would struggle to establish.

The Atlantic Alumina deal signals a fundamental shift in U.S. industrial policy—a recognition that market forces alone cannot address strategic vulnerabilities in critical supply chains when competing against state-directed industrial policies.

The partnership model—combining government preferred equity with private operational control and capital—offers a template that balances strategic imperatives with market efficiency. Unlike full nationalization or purely private investment, this structure allows government to ensure strategic outcomes while leveraging private sector expertise and additional capital.

The deal also highlights the limitations of purely defensive measures. Export controls on advanced semiconductors and other technologies, while important, cannot address the underlying vulnerability created by import dependency for critical inputs. Domestic production capacity provides strategic resilience that trade policy alone cannot deliver.

For the private equity industry, the deal demonstrates emerging opportunities at the intersection of national security and industrial infrastructure. As governments increasingly prioritize supply chain resilience, patient capital willing to invest in physical commodity assets with strategic value may find both financial returns and policy support.

The partnership's success will ultimately be measured not by announcements but by production metrics. Can ATALCO reach its target of over one million metric tons of alumina per year and up to 50 metric tons of gallium per year? Can the facility operate profitably while competing against subsidized Chinese production? Can the gallium circuit achieve commercial viability at scale?

These questions will be answered over the coming years as the investment translates into operational reality. What is already clear is that the United States has recognized a critical vulnerability and taken concrete action to address it. Whether this represents the beginning of a broader reshoring of critical mineral production or a one-off intervention in a uniquely strategic asset remains to be seen.

For now, the Gramercy facility stands as both a symbol of American industrial decline—the last of its kind—and a potential model for industrial renewal through strategic public-private partnership. The 500 workers at the plant, the defense contractors dependent on its output, and the policymakers concerned with supply chain resilience will be watching closely as this ambitious partnership unfolds.